Goudhurst Parish

Do you have a photograph of the church that you would like to see posted here? Email me.

A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Goudhurst is: VACANT.

Goudhurst is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Sutton. The church is named for St. Mary with registers commencing 1558.

Goudhurst, a village and a parish in Cranbrook district, Kent. The village stands on a hill near the river Tees, 4 miles west-north-west of Cranbrook, and 5 miles south-by-west of Marden rail station; was formerly a seat of the clothing trade, and a market town; and has now a post office under Staplehurst with a with a savings banks and a money order office, a news room, and fairs on 26 August and 5 November. The parish comprises 9,685 acres. Real property in 1860, £13,322. Population in 1861, 2,778. Houses, 535. The property is considerably divided.

Goudhurst Hill has an altitude of 491 feet; forms part of a range, about 3 miles long; and is skirted, on the west, by the river Tees.

Bedgebury Park was long the residence of the Bedgeburys; passed to the Colepepers, the Stephensons, the Cartiers, and the Beresfords; and is now the seat of A. J. B. Hope, Esq.. Combwell was once a priory, and afterwards the residence of the Campions. Finchcocks belonged to the Finchcock family in the time of Henry III; and the present mansion was built by the Bathursts in 1725.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £432 with a habitable glebe house. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. The church stands on a lofty site; commands, from its tower, an extensive and noble view; is itself a fine old edifice; was about to be restored in June, 1865 and contains many monuments of the Colepepers and the Campions. The vicarage of Kilndown is a separate benefice.

There are a Wesleyan chapel, a Primitive Methodist chapel, a national school, an endowment of £40 for a grammar school, and other charities with £75.

Kilndown – a hamlet and a chapelry in Goudhurst parish, Kent. The hamlet is situated on an eminence, 2-1/2 miles southwest of Goudhurst village, and 4-3/4 miles east-north-east of Wadhurst rail station; and has a post office under Staplehurst. The chapelry was constituted in 1843. Population in 1861, 904. Houses, 168. Bedgebury, the seat of A. J. B. Beresford-Hope, Esq., is the chief residence.

The living [Kilndown] is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £400 with a habitable glebe house. Patron, A. J. B. Beresford-Hope, Esq.. The church was built in 1841; is a handsome edifice, in the pointed style; contains a stone pulpit, and a fine carved oak screen; and was endowed by the late Marshal Beresford. The parsonage was built in 1855; is also a handsome edifice in the pointed style; and was erected at Marshal Bereford’s expense.

There are a Wesleyan chapel, a library and reading room, and a boys’ and girls’ school; and the last was endowed by the late Viscountess Beresford with £210 a year.11John Marius Wilson, comp. The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).